Art of Vera Pagava

Vera Pagava (1907–1988) was a Georgian painter, graphic artist, decorator and monumental­ist who was an important representative of French art in the 1960s and 1970s.

Born an only child to wealthy and cultivated Georgian parents, V. Pagava fled Soviet annexation with her family and settled in Montrouge, France, in 1923. She studied mainly at the Académie Ranson, in the workshop of painter Roger Bissière, and first showed her work in 1944 at the Jeanne Bucher Gallery.

Despite being figurative, the Georgian artist’s paintings always showed a strong inclination towards abstraction, from the start of her career in 1930s Paris.

Despite being figurative, the Georgian artist’s paintings always showed a strong inclination towards abstraction, from the start of her career in 1930s Paris. In 1980s Vera Pagava confessed:

“I couldn’t handle any more figuration and no longer needed to use it as a crutch.”

By 1960, V. Pagava no longer needed the “crutch” of figuration, and predominantly painted geometric shapes with rounded and irregular edges. The final years of her career were characterized by her use of geometric shapes depicting stars, skies, mountains, and “ascensions”. These simple yet effective “celestial bodies” appear to be the graceful manifestations of an intimate and spiritual cosmos – the last stage in a rich and diverse career that is a testament to her constantly renewed inventiveness.